maskset

I got a board sent back by JLCPCB the other day due to a DRC rule I haven't come across before. The rule is:

If the copper area is less than 30% of the outer layers then the trace-trace space should be at least 0.15mm.

This is …

Most pick and place files are programmed by hand. Remember this and repeat it to yourself whenever you're checking your files for PCBA manufacturing. There's a great talk by Chris Denny from KiCON 2019 where he discusses this issue in depth youttube link.

Assembly layers are a great utility to …

Summary

Spreadsheet Wrangler is a command line tool to make working with spreadsheets easier. I use it primarily for handling bill of materials.

• Github
• PyPi

README

spreadsheet-wrangler

Command line tool for interacting with spreadsheet data

Installation

pypi

pip install spreadsheet-wrangler

Source

git clone https://github.com/snhobbs/spreadsheet-wrangler.git
cd …

Summary

Programmatically pack 2D rectangular parts as efficiently as possible.

Background

I need to produce a bunch of 2D parts out of the same material. The parts are roughly rectangular and I need to produce an undefined large number (test jig stands for TheJigsApp.com). There are a ton of …

Summary

This is a discussion on using vectors in OpenSCAD as objects that can be used polymorphically. I've found this to be a powerful approach which encourages more generic algorithms. It's a bit ugly but it works. Nothing here is revolutionary but I've found it to be a useful way …

Here's a trick I've been using to prepare files for laser cutting that have been exported to SVG.

SVG is just an XML file that contains a bunch of vectors and metadata. Here's an example of one exported from OpenSCAD. Remember this, I didn't.

<?xml version="1.0" standalone="no …

• Name: pyetest
• Github: https://github.com/snhobbs/pyetest
• pypy: TBD

The following introduces a python library targeted at filling in spreadsheets to simplify writing pass/fail tests for electronics testing. This method generates easy to maintain test description and acceptance test software with easily defined measurements and test criteria. The …

All I'm going to say here is to make your bed before you get in and close the barn before the horse puts in his two weeks notice.

Writing MCU device drivers can suck. It can suck for many reasons. As someone who spent best part of a week tracking …

Background

I'm building a test jig for a device that needs RS-232 and RS-485 transceivers. Since this is a test jig I prefer to build it out of off the shelf components, preferably ones that can be delivered overnight. Inside the jig I have the two dongles and a Labjack …

Appimages are yet another, honestly the number of these is insane, packaging methods for distributing code with all dependencies included. It's one of the simpler approaches, there's no package manager for it, you download the image and go. The FreeCAD AppImages (here) work great and is my typical approach to …